The Team

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The Team

RGE is a flagship project of Imperial College London and the team is made up of 11 highly motivated students and staff. From the Energy Futures Lab, Electronic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, many of the team have experience in building hydrogen/electric hybrid race cars as part of the Imperial Racing Green initiative. Click on the pictures to find out more about us.

Project Manager

Alexander Schey
MEng Mechanical Engineering

Alex has initiated this project and assembled a strong team to get it done. He has been involved in all aspects of the project, especially fundraising in the early days, and continues to motivate the rest of the team when times get tough.

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+44 7733 223 143

Staff Manager

Dave Howey
Phd Electrical Engineering

Dave is always on hand to make sure we are aware of every potential pitfall. He has a great ability to ask questions and organise the rest of the team.

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Chief Operations Manager

Clemens Lorf
Phd Mechanical Engineering

Clemens is organizing the logistics for this project. He has to identify suitable towns and cities with charging points, choose the safest roads and negotiate border crossings. At the same time he is working on his PhD which is - no wonder – about low carbon vehicles.

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Chief Powertrain Engineer

Aran Kankiwala
MEng Mechanical Engineering

Aran’s job involves lots of testing to make sure the batteries keep working and stay in balance under the extreme conditions we will face along the Pan-American Highway.
“Having done Imperial Racing Green for 2 years, it re-kindled my passion for engineering. When I heard about this project, I thought, how could I NOT do this? It’s fun, cutting edge and will be a once in a lifetime experience. I’m most looking forward to driving the vehicle on the roads for the first time, seeing the culmination of all our work…and driving it abroad…and the trip…and the documentary.”

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Chief Control Engineer

Alec de Zegher
MEng Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Alec has the unenviable task of integrating all the different parts of the car, and somehow allowing them to talk to each other. This involves endless amounts of programming on the CRio, but luckily Alec is the biggest geek on the project and enjoys it.

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Chief Mechanical Engineer

Nikolaus Sauer
MEng Mechanical Engineering

From designing the major modifications on the SR8 chassis to battery packaging, powertrain integration and developing cooling systems for the high power electrics, Nikolaus has shown to be a talented and creative problem solver. “This project is an incredible chance to push the frontier in electric car design further. Combined with working in a fantastic team and going on an incredible drive along the Pan-American Highway with our car, it makes for a lifetime experience”.

Andy is in charge of controlling the RGE brand and making sure the public are aware of our project. Initially this involved student magazine articles and PowerPoint presentations but recently the team have been filmed for the Discovery Channel and our very own documentary series.

Celine started out on the fundraising side of the project, but as the start date gets ever closer, she has transferred across to help out Clemens with the Logistics.
“I believe new technologies such as electric cars need two things to spread: Political action from the Government and public acceptance. Hopefully the project works on the latter, in an entertaining and non-patronizing way.”

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Mechanical Engineer and Webmaster

Charalambos Palas
Meng Mechanical Engineering

Charalambos specializes in vehicle dynamics. He is also responsible for the web presence and website development of RGE and all things internet related - working closely with Andy they strive to effectively communicate the aims and values of Racing Green Endurance to the public.

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Energy and Vehicle Systems Engineer

Toby Schulz
Meng Mechanical Engineering

Toby has a great all around engineering skills, which is extremely useful for understanding how changes in one area will affect the rest of the car. He is also the only one who can understand Alec’s programming on the CRio.

Paul is a highly regarded editor of Long Way Down, By Any Means and The Man Who Killed Kennedy. He has come to join Claudio since Cartegena as a second cameraman and is working all hours to keep the web clips coming for South America.

Documentary Producer

Claudio Von Planta
Von Planta Productions

We are extremely lucky to have Claudio coming with us and filming our project. He is a world class documentary producer having previously filmed programmes such as the BBC's Long Way Round and By Any Means (with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman). In addition to the actual documentary, he also produces regular "webisodes" to keep everyone updated with our project.